AEMO is requesting the Australian Energy Market Commission make changes to the National Electricity Rules that will reform the regulatory framework surrounding the connection of generation to the national grid.

The existing generator technical requirements were designed for an era of generating systems with different
technological characteristics and performance capabilities. They have not been reviewed for 10 years.

The SA black system event demonstrated weaknesses in the existing generator performance standards that
adversely impacted on the security and reliability of the power system, in particular the ability of connected
generating systems to withstand, ride through and support the power system during major contingency events.

The proposed changes will build a modern, advanced and secure power system in an efficient manner, while minimising the potential for system weaknesses to arise.

As the energy market transforms, the nature of frequency control in the National Electricity Market will change as new services are likely to be needed to complement existing mechanisms. This provides opportunities for applications of fast frequency response (FFR) to play a role in complementing existing frequency control. This working paper aims to develop a common language for discussion across industry, and provide early guidance on the suite of FFR services that may be valuable in future to assist in the efficient management of power system security. Stakeholder input is invited by 29 September 2017.

Following delivery of a report providing advice on proposed generator licensing standards to ESCOSA in March 2017 and ESCOSA's subsequent consultation process AEMO has issued an Addendum to its March Report. The Addendum presents revised technical advice to ESCOSA following input from Stakeholders. Further information, including ESCOSA's accompanying reporting is available here.

AEMO's latest submission to the AEMC’s System Security Market Frameworks Review provides analysis of the level of inertia required for a resilient grid, the potential roles for fast frequency response (FFR) in the future, and implications for the AEMC’s proposed framework. AEMO has proposed an alternative process for procuring inertia, FFR and related services, which may more effectively meet the emerging requirements of the grid.

AEMO has provided advice to ESCOSA on special licence conditions for generators connecting in South Australia. These licence conditions were last reviewed in 2010- ESCOSA will be undertaking consultation with stakeholders until July 2017 in conjunction with AEMO. For more information visit ESCOSA's website at:
http://www.escosa.sa.gov.au/inquiries

To view a one page summary of AEMO’s recommendations, please click here.

AEMO engaged GE Consulting to explore the potential value of a Fast Frequency Response (FFR) service in the NEM, and to provide advice on how such a service should be specified. AEMO's interpretation of GE's findings, and intended next steps, are summarised in this covernote.

AEMO’s submission to the Finkel Review provides specific answers to most of the questions posed in the consultation paper, but also outlines those matters AEMO considers to be of greatest urgency for the independent review to address.

AEMO has lodged a submission to the AEMC's System Security Market Frameworks Review in response to their Interim Report. In this submission, AEMO highlights the need to consider “hybrid” options for procuring inertia, which could drive long-term investment, allow for coordination between inertia procurement and managing system strength, and enable an efficient short-term mix of services. AEMO also identifies the need for new regulatory requirements to address the underlying drivers for system strength issues.

AEMO has lodged a submission to the AEMC's Draft Determination for Rule change proposals on emergency frequency control schemes tabled by South Australia's Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. In this submission, AEMO offers an alternative framework to what is proposed in the Draft Determination for administration of emergency frequency control schemes and a new proposed category of contingency events referred to as 'protected events

One of the key recommendations in the FPSS International Review (published in October 2016) was to develop a collaboration with EirGrid in Ireland, to learn from their experiences in managing high RoCoF, and the development of new system services. To facilitate this, Jenny Riesz from the FPSS team visited EirGrid for two and a half weeks. While there, she presented on the FPSS program to EirGrid's managers, as well as at the DS3 Advisory Council meeting in Belfast (19 Jan), and to senior management at the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER).

This report provides a consolidated update of AEMO’s Future Power System Security (FPSS) work program, which aims to ensure power system security is maintained in the National Electricity Market (NEM) in the face of a changing generation mix and demand patterns.

As part of the FPSS Program AEMO has developed the Visibility of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) report to outline the need for visibility of increasing penetrations of DER data to maintain power system security. The report details the potential impact DER has on market efficiency and reliability if their existence and behaviour is not visible or predictable to the operators. The report notes that that regulatory changes may be required to address information gaps to either make data available or consider opportunities to manage the power system in new ways.

AEMO has published its third incident report into the South Australian (SA) state-wide power outage (referred to as the ‘SA region Black System event’) that occurred on Wednesday, 28 September 2016. This report, using collated information as at 7 December 2016, provides a consolidated view of all information published to date, together with further insight into AEMO’s pre-event planning and system restart process in South Australia, and power system and market operations during the Market suspension period. While this report focuses on the specifics of the SA region Black System event, it also highlights a number of challenges and measures relevant to broader considerations of how the changing power system responds to extreme events. While extreme events will occur from time to time, testing the wider resilience of the grid system, this report outlines for further analysis a number of preliminary recommendations to mitigate the risk of similar major supply disruptions in South Australia. This third report provides 15 preliminary recommendations with respect to industry’s preparation pre-event, actions during the event, the process for restoration, and communication during the market suspension.

AEMO’s submission to the Victorian Renewable Energy Target recommends that security and economic issues related to the Victorian grid are used as an evaluation criterion within the auction and that AEMO’s declared network functions be leveraged to assist this evaluation.

AEMO submitted a response to the draft report released by the Queensland Renewable Energy Expert Panel's consultation on achieving 50% renewables by 2030. AEMO's submission includes insights and advice from the work completed to date under the FPSS program. AEMO acknowledges and supports the Queensland Government’s intention to minimise the total cost of any renewable energy target on customers, and emphasises that the design of the final scheme should seek to support and/or complement important NEM investment and operational incentives as a means of building a stronger, more resilient interconnected power system. AEMO suggests further consideration be given to the market modelling. Better visibility of the possible outcomes of this projected level of intermittent generation on existing and future market participants would add to the understanding of the policy impacts and its consequences.

AEMO has lodged a submission to the AEMC's Consultation Paper for Rule change proposals on emergency frequency control schemes tabled by South Australia's Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy.

In this submission, AEMO suggests clarification of areas of the NER to improve frameworks for emergency frequency control schemes and argues for the declaration of specific non-credible contingency events as 'protected events'- for which pre-emptive action can be taken to contain the consequence of the event(s) to an acceptable and well defined level.

AEMO made a submission to the Energy Storage Registration Consultation Paper released by the Energy Market Transformation Project Team (EMTPT), a working group of the COAG Energy Council. The paper sought to determine whether a battery storage registry was needed by industry, and how it should be operated. AEMO's submission encourages the EMTPT to consider a broader registry that would cater for a range of technologies.

This progress report outlines the FPSS program, and presents the outcomes of industry consultation on the long-term technical challenges to maintaining power system security in the context of changing generation mix. It also summarises key actions that are currently underway to understand the challenges and potential technical solutions.

This year's roadshow – scheduled for each capital city on the east coast including Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane – provided a timely follow up to AEMO's widely attended first roadshow on renewable energy integration held in 2015, and was booked out by keen government, industry and consumer attendees.

The roadshow provided an opportunity for the energy industry to come together to discuss the opportunities and challenges in system security and possible solutions. The sessions give AEMO the opportunity to touch base with stakeholders across the NEM, and engage in valuable two-way conversations.
The forums discussed topics at the sessions including:

June 2016 - Submission to Queensland Renewable Energy Expert Panel
AEMO submitted a response to the Issues Paper released by the Queensland Renewable Energy Expert Panel's consultation on achieving 50% renewables by 2030. AEMO discuss the FPSS program, and indicated that although this 50% target will create operational challenges, it also is an opportunity to encourage the solutions required to adapt to a changing energy market.

April 2016 – Future Power System Security Update
A progress report on the Future Power System Security Project, including an update on the technical advisory group. Further information about this program was presented at the NEM Wholesale Consultative Forum in March 2016. Papers from this meeting are available here.

Reliability Standard Implementation Guidelines

The Reliability Standard Implementation Guidelines (RSIG) report is focused on the operational challenges presented by high levels of wind generation in the NEM.

AEMO currently assesses the future performance of the power system in the context of the Reliability Standard, in accordance with a number of processes specified in the National Electricity Rules. The RSIG has combined all these processes into a single document to provide guidance on how AEMO implements the Reliability Standard.